In other words, if a school decides to leave the ACC for, oh, say, the Big Ten, then its media revenues go to the ACC – and not to the school – for the length of the Grant of Media Rights agreement. Translation: you’re not leaving the league.

Even worse for Delany? Note the number of schools that are parties to the agreement. Then consider that the ACC is officially a 14-team conference (for football, anyway). You do the math on what that means.

I’ve held out against a 9 game schedule because I believed the SEC would be expanding in the near future to 16 teams, and an easy 16-team, 8-game schedule can be set up. Now though? Without any viable option for expansion, nine is coming, and I don’t like it. It’s going to spell the end for either Jacksonville, Clean Old-Fashioned Hate, or intriguing OOC match-ups (already partially killed by McGarity).

The Maryland folks have to be a little irritated, too. I’m sure they made the move with the implicit understanding that they would be the first of an eastern/southern push by the Big Ten (Virginia, UNC, Georgia Tech). Now they’ll have West Virginia’s travel headaches and little chance of being reunited with closer, traditional peers.

Agreed, Maryland saw the writing on the wall that the ACC was about to implode and they jumped early. Somehow the ACC survived and now they’re stuck in the Big Midwest conference with a bunch of teams they have nothing in common with. They also get to share the Big Integer Eastern Division with Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State in the newly geographically aligned (and unbalanced) divisions.

This and this only. They even admitted as much, this was all about not having to cut sports today, regardless of the future impact.

For the Big Ten, the big issue now is that they’re locked in with a lower fanatic fan base per school when they started, there’s no room to maneuver, as a result they’re chained to a fading bundled business model. They started all of this in a power position and now basically locked themselves into a degrading one.

I agree – I think Slive viewed it as a necessary evil. The two schools mentioned as the most natural fit culturally – FSU and Clemson – were a pipe dream based on the likely veto of Florida and SC, respectively.

It doesn’t expand markets in the traditional opening up a new major market. But, FSU would bring more than NC St or UVA at a national level. FSU vs Bama/LSU/Aub/UGA turns on sets across the country. Nobody cares about UVA or NC St outside of their local area and even then they are not a clear #1 in the their own state.

Totally agree regular matchups of FSU would have a national appeal but the national footprint is covered with CBS & ESPN. Expansion is about broadening the reach of the regional cable footprint. If you have a teams in from states like NC or VA, then you can sell Raleigh, Charlotte, Richmond, DC, etc.

The SEC can already sell the Florida markets since UF smack dab in the middle of the states. Adding FSU would solidify that market from a ratings standpoint but that is secondary than looking for new eyes.

I think Delaney has been more outspoken about expansion and they openly covet Notre Dame. But I would think that Slive himself or his proxies have been quietly checking in on the Va Tech’s, the UVA’s, the NC State’s and the UNC’s.

It is interesting that the announcement is timed close to the SEC Network announcement though.

Also, wonder how much “Bristol consulting” has aided the decision-makers in this decision.

The devil has to be in the details here. As you’ve noted, Notre Dame is listed as one of the schools granting media rights, but how can they be granting all of them as CBS just re-upped them last week? What if this is just second tier or some such?

So Notre Dame has granted their non-football rights to the ACC, but retained their football rights? That’s some serious fine-print glossed over in the press release.
If that’s the case with these other schools, does this mean anything?